He Has a Plan, He Says

Election 2008 (Canada) Comments (0)

I love the one liners by Jack Layton. His most recent one.  ‘pull a thread and the whole sweater unravels‘ is great, and it is apt. Harper & his Conservative claim to have a backup plan, if the worsening world economy impacts our economy.

“Pull one thread and the whole sweater unravels, and it’s the people in Canada who get left out in the cold,” Layton said, referring to ads showing Harper clad in sweaters to soften his image. (source – CBC News)

While Mr. Harper says there is a Plan B, I am still waiting to find out what Plan A is. So far all we have seen from the nearly 3 years of Conservative Government is tax cuts, and more tax cuts, along with unusable tax credits for low income earners. They do NOTHING to stimulate real economic growth, or sustain what exists. They don’t spur investment, and certainly haven’t helped reduce the costs associated with doing business, or in being a consumer either.

The strong Dollar hasn’t helped our exports, nor has it given us cheaper goods to buy. Imports continue to be more expensive, and we seem to be importing a lot more than we used. Our Farmers continue to suffer from this, and yet, our cost to live continues to rise, and rise, and rise.

A good example is the watered down, ineffective day care program of the Harper Government. Now he is going to ‘index it’ so that there will be a few extra dollars in the hands of those who receive it. Course that is everyone with a kid, and yet while the rich get their few extra dollars, the poor and low income earners continue to struggle to decide how to support themselves, and their children. Harper’s daycare plan is a perfect example of his uncaring approach to the needs of Canadians.

Let’s be honest, a single mother on minimum wage needs a darn site more than a $100 a month for daycare, while a stay at home mother who is busy with bridge clubs, lunches, and other charity events certainly doesn’t need the $100 a month. The true plan, that makes sense, is to give less to the stay at home financially secure mother, and a darn site more to the single working mother. A plan that Stephen Harper defeated when in opposition, supported by both Jack Layton & Gilles Duceppe.

And this is also his approach to our worsening economy.

He cuts the GST which really is maybe a $100 saving for the low wage earner. That does not compensate nearly for the increase in just gas to get to work, let alone anything else. This is not a tax break for the people, but a payoff, in an attempt to claim he cares. If he truly wanted to make a difference, then reduce the personal income tax rate by 1%, increase the base deduction level to that of the minimum wage amount, and pay for it by stopping tax breaks to multi billion dollar corporations like Exxon. Stop giving the Mining Industry ways to improve their profit sheet, by polluting our fresh rivers and lakes. Hell if he really wanted to help people, help industry, he’d immediately regulate the oil industry, freeze the price and then put it to where it belongs. That alone would give business an increase in income, would keep money in our pockets, but he doesn’t have the guts or inclination to do that. After all, where would he get his campaign contributions from?

But then, that would be something a caring & reasonable leader would do. THAT ISN’T STEPHEN HARPER.

Ian @ October 7, 2008